I was surfing the net the other night when I came upon a very fine website called Oblate Spring. An oblate, in case you don't know, is a layperson who tries to structure his or her spiritual life according to monastic principles while still living in the so-called real world. A typical oblate will pray the daily office, engage in forms of contemplative prayer, do lots of spiritual reading, and be in spiritual direction, among other things. Participation in a local congregation is a given. The oblate follows a definitive rule of life and has a relationship, reinforced by solemn promises, with a particular monastic community. I myself am an associate (we're called associates instead of oblates, but the principle is the same) of the Anglican Order of the Holy Cross.

Oblate Spring is slanted towards Roman Catholic Benedictines but has lots of good material relevant to any Christian with a serious commitment to contemplative prayer. I've included it in the Favorite Links section of the sidebar. It's maintained by John Bakas, himself an oblate ofSt Leo's Abbey in central Florida.

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Anonymous

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Contributors

Joe Rawls

I'm an Anglican layperson with a great fondness for contemplative prayer and coffeehouses. My spirituality is shaped by Benedictine monasticism, high-church Anglicanism, and the hesychast tradition of Eastern Orthodoxy. I've been married to my wife Nancy for 38 years.